Why Nico Rosberg must be aggresive to win the title

There are no shortcuts to be a F1 world champion. In the final race of this year, it will be a showdown between the two Mercedes drivers – Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

The Brit remains the in-form driver having won the last three races – yet, he trails Rosberg by twelve points.

The difference illustrates what a stunning season the German driver has had thus far. And, irrespective of what Hamilton achieves, a place on the podium is enough for Rosberg to win his maiden driver’s title.

Let’s turn back to 2010, the final race at Abu Dhabi had three contenders to win the driver’s title. Fernando Alonso led Mark Webber by eight points. And, further seven points away was Sebastian Vettel.

We all know what happened, neither the Spaniard nor the Aussie won. The underdog Vettel won the race purely because he drove as though he had nothing to lose.

The pressure of the title showed on Alonso and on Webber and in the end Ferrari came out as the real losers, as one of the two Red Bull drivers benefitted. It was the defensive strategy by Ferrari that costed Alonso the driver’s title.

The way I look at it, Rosberg is in a similar position to that of Alonso (from the 2010 season). If he must win, then he needs to bring his controlled aggression on the track and not merely look for the third place.

The Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo have shown their pace and they might challenge the Mercedes for the podium places – clearly, they do not have anything to lose.

In a way, Hamilton is in similar position and although he has the driver’s championship to lose, he knows he can only win the race and hope Rosberg finishes outside of top three. Beyond that, the three-time champion cannot do much.

I have been critical of Nico Rosberg in the past. However, I have praised him this season for changing his attitude and being ruthless on most occasions on the track. In fact, I am rooting for him this season after having observed his drives throughout the year and not to forget, the 'luck' factor. 

So, the final race of this season will be defined by how Rosberg performs. 

Does he have the zeal to fight for the title or will he scoot around to finish third?

For that, we must wait on Sunday for the season finale at Abu Dhabi.

The points scenario -

         Lewis Hamilton (355 points)                                 Nico Rosberg  (367 points)

If Hamilton finishes	Then Rosberg needs
1st (380 points)	3rd (382 points)
2nd (373 points)	6th (375 points)
3rd (370 points)	8th (371 points)
4th (367 points)	Rosberg is the champion

P.S – Some interesting facts

1. If Nico Rosberg were to win the 2016 driver’s title, he will become the second of the father-son combo to have won the title after Damon Hill clinched it in 1996.

2. Interestingly, Graham Hill won his first driver’s title in 1962 (he also won in 1968) and Keke Rosberg’s first title was in 1982. A 20-year gap in both cases of fathers and sons winning their first driver’s title (if Rosberg were to win the title).

EXCUSES, EXCUSES - NICO ROSBERG AND HIS EXCUSES, POST RACE!

Rosberg (l) needs to overcome the mental scars inflicted by his teammate Lewis Hamilton(r)
Courtesy - Reuters 

Midway during the recently concluded Chinese Grand Prix, the race leader and the eventual winner Lewis Hamilton started to drive slowly, not at his usual breezing pace which he did until that point. His teammate, Mercedes second driver Nico Rosberg immediately spoke on the team radio, "Lewis is slowing down, can I go faster?". After watching F1 races for close to twenty years, I knew there was no problem with Hamilton's car and in my view it was a deliberate tactic - a kind of mind game if you may call it on Rosberg (my opinion). Not surprisingly, Rosberg, as usual fell into this trap as Sebastian Vettel came close to tail him and was within 1.5s as a result of all this. If Ferrari would have been competitive on the option tyres after the second pit-stop, I am pretty sure Vettel, and even Raikkonen would have been all over Rosberg! And what does that do to your confidence if you happen to be Rosberg?

Mercedes was miles ahead of Ferrari in terms of performance and it was good to see Vettel taking up the challenge to the Mercedes second driver. I re-iterate the fact, that Nico Rosberg is the second driver in the Mercedes set-up, and simply because he has not had an answer or a plan to get past his teammate on the race track. What does Nico Rosberg want? He wants to be a world champion and how does he plan to do that? By coming in second, race after race while his teammate takes the glory? or by making a statement on the track by getting past Lewis Hamilton? At this point, Lewis is clearly having an advantage and that is mainly due to the mental scars within Nico Rosberg. Instead of stating Lewis is slowing down on the team radio, try being a champion and overtake him and let's see what happens! Mercedes as a team can play it safe and they don't care who takes the top step as long as they bring 43 points from each race.

And then after the race, Nico Rosberg speaks out stating, wait, complaining - that Lewis Hamilton held him back by deliberately going slow. Lewis, quick to respond in his usual 'cool' and 'hip' fashion - "That was not deliberate (yeah right, Lewis!) and if Nico had been able to overtake him, he should have done that".

Personally, I would never pay money to watch Nico Rosberg's style of driving. I always get the feeling, he wants to live in the ideal world and everything has to go as per the plan. What kind of a racer you want to be, Nico? Opportunities do not come your way, you gotta make it happen. In this case, whether Lewis deliberately slowed down or not, you were more concerned about your tyres rather than looking for that 'opening' to break the shackles and race...challenge... and possibly go past him. Instead, your endless speeches, one after the other, does not make an iota of sense. In your quest of becoming a world champion, those words are sheer excuses!

Action speaks louder than words - in your case, both are being ineffective, while Hamilton has the last laugh at the conclusion each race, having got better of you on the track and in etching few of the mental scars.

Well, it's a long season ahead and if you (Rosberg) are serious about winning the championship this year, then start conquering your mental fears and overcome them. The problem is not the car, not the strategy, definitely not the team or don't even look at your teammate as an excuse - the problem which is holding you back is within you and I hope you realise it sooner or else you gotta be bidding your title hopes yet again this year.